1884.] CIVILIZATION AND ITS WASTES. 271 



blow that can be laid upon its prosperity. Times are not now 

 as they used to be, and the competition between cities is very 

 different. Large numbers of people are more afraid of going 

 to an unhealthy place than they used to be, and if the State 

 of. Connecticut, or those who act for the State in its legislative 

 halls, will not consider this matter on humanitarian grounds^ 

 for the saving of life and the saving of health, they will be 

 compelled to do it to save the prosperity which has heretofore 

 blessed the State. I am sure that something will have to be 

 done, that something will be done. I have no plan to suggest 

 by which this is to be brought about. It is a complicated 

 question; it is a question for engineers, it is a question for 

 money to work out ; but that it must be brought up, that it 

 must be made the subject of legislation, and that it will be, I 

 have not the slightest doubt ; and all I ask of you is, that 

 each and every one of you will use your influence to hasten 

 the adoption of some measures to put a stop to the sickness 

 and suffering and death, that the condition of things which 

 now exists entails upon the people of the State. I have seen 

 considerable of the pollution of streams in this State. How 

 much it has to do with the introduction of malaria here I 

 shall not discuss; that it has very much to do with its 

 malignancy, and with the condition in which we now find it, I 

 have not a shadow of a doubt. 



Mr. Wetherell. I have heard it claimed that water 

 purifies itself, and that where it is polluted by a factory, by 

 the time it gets a mile away from the factory, it is as pure as 

 if the factory had not poured its filth into it. I would like 

 to ask Prof. Brewer if that is so. 



Prof. Brewer. I can explain that in one sentence : It is 

 not true. 



Mr. Wetherell. I did not suppose it was. 



Prof. Brewer. It has not been proved true by an experi- 

 ment that ever has been made. I have samples now of water 

 polluted with all the ordinary forms of filth, with sewage, 

 with urine, and so on. That water has been standing since 

 last May. There is fermentation going on. The water 



